This application incorporates by reference of Taiwan application Serial No. 090126661, filed. Oct. 26, 2001.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method in intelligent type for filtering a disturbance for the incoming phone call, and more particularly to an apparatus and a method in intelligent type for filtering a disturbance for the incoming phone call, which can manage the phone call information by a concept of grouping structure, so as to provide the filtering function for the incoming phone call.
2. Description of Related Art
As the mobile communication technology is developed in great progress, the mobile telephone has been the most common of the communication tools, and due to the characteristics of lightness, compactness, and portability, it has brought much convenience to the user. However, as the mobile telephone has become a mainstream everyday communication tool, it also brings some undesirable situations for the user. The main issue is due to the situation of phone calls arriving at an improper time or simply being undesired. For example, during the working time period, phone calls from someone other than the clients may be inappropriate. Also, during the vacation, phone calls from the clients may not be desired. While driving, it may not be proper to receive the phone call. Or, when one attends a meeting or an entertaining show, the phone call is also prevented from being received, due to the polite manner. In all of the foregoing situations, it is inevitable to be disturbed by a ringing or shaking signal.
In the conventional technology, in order to solve the foregoing problems, the mobile phones in the current market have the function of showing the information about the incoming phone call. In other words, when the incoming phone call is made, the displaying panel will display a phone number and/or name of the incoming phone call. The user can determine whether or not to receive the phone call, based upon the information on the display panel. Or, the user can set up the condition with respect to a single phone number, so that the mobile phone can automatically process the incoming phone call according to the condition set by the user.
The disadvantage in the foregoing method is that the user is required to make a judgment or it is still short of the concept of management by the group manner. With the current filtering method for the incoming phone call, for each phone call information, the user is required to respectively set the filtering condition for each one or to add the conditions one by one into the screening data bank. If the user is in the off work time period and a condition is set to screen the phone call from the clients, then upon returning to the work time period, the user is required to remove the screening instructions again with respect to the phone number information for each client, or to remove the concerning phone number from the screening data bank, or even to set the incoming phone calls other than the clients being screened. In this situation, the procedure for repeatedly setting the conditions is very tedious. It consumes much of the user""s time.
As described above, it is an essential issue to develop a solution of how to manage the phone call information by a grouping manner, so as to prevent the repetitious procedure of setting the screening conditions.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide an apparatus in an intelligent type for filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call. It can based on the phone call information recorded in the phone call data bank, so as to compare the incoming phone call by a concept of grouping manner and to filter the incoming phone calls.
In accordance with the foregoing and other objectives of the present invention, an apparatus in an intelligent type for filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call includes at least a phone call data bank, which stores at least one phone call data. The phone call data comprises an identification type. A user interface device is used to receive a filtering flag set by the user with respect to the phone call data, which have the similar identification type. A register module is used to store the phone number of the incoming phone call when a request for signal connection is received. Also, a filtering module of the incoming phone call is used to compare the phone number of the incoming phone call with the filtering flag of the phone call data bank, so as to judge whether or not the phone number of the incoming call needs to be screened.
In the aspect of one of the embodiments of the present invention, the phone call data bank further stores a screening period with respect to the filtering flags. Also, the user interface can further allow the user to set the screening period with respect to the phone call data having the same identification type. The screening period can include a screening starting time and a screening ending time.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the filtering module is based on the comparing result, and makes a rejection of the signal connection for those incoming phone calls, which are desired to be screened. The manner of rejecting the signal connection can be issuing a line busy signal or transferring the call to a voice mailbox.
The present invention also provides a method in an intelligent type for filtering a disturbance for an incoming phone call. The method comprises storing at least one phone call data in a phone call data bank, and the phone call data includes an identification type. A filtering flag setting, which is set by the user with respect to the phone call data with the same as the identification type, is allowed. Additionally, when a request for the signal connection is received, the phone number of the incoming phone call is temporarily stored in a register module and then compared with the filtering flag of the phone call data, so as to judge whether or not the phone number of incoming phone call needs to be screened.
Since the apparatus and the method in intelligent type for filtering a disturbance for the incoming phone call of the present invention is based on the need of the user, so as to set a filtering flag with a unified condition with respect to the phone numbers belonging to the identification type that is desired to be screened. A concept of grouping manner is used to manage and filter the phone call data of the phone call data bank. As a result, the situation of repeatedly setting the screening condition can be avoided, so as to greatly reduce the amount of time and the frequency required for the procedure. The present invention can allow the user to manage the incoming phone calls with better efficiency.